Is the Sealy "PosturePedic"  a scam? — I think so!
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"Its not a scam because
Costco refunds your money"

My "Fenway" bed felt to me like a hammock; not "PosturePedic"!
That is what a Costco manger told me. I do agree that Costco refunded my $568 when I returned the "Fenway".

Why do I say it is a scam? Because Sealy is using the term "PosturePedic" to make people think any piece of junk they slap together is a good mattress. The word "PosturePedic" invokes the words "posture" and "orthopedic". You think you are buying an orthopedically approved bed for your back. Instead I learned that this word apparently means absolutely nothing. Sealy is rife with phony sales jargon, fictitious names for beds, and not applying any technical criteria to the aspects of support, firmness, softness, etc.

The proof is that the bed I bought was terrible. And when I looked to buy a replacement found another person selling his "Fenway" model online because his doctor told him to stop using it. He said he needed a bed with more support. No kidding! I figured that out for myself the first night I slept on mine.

Here is the text of my final letter to Costco.
 
Sealy, in my opinion, is committing fraud with this “PosturePedic” trademark name. There is nothing “PosturePedic” about a sagging, non-supportive mattress of such obviously cheap quality.

January 12, 2006


Dear Costco Buyers,

I returned the Sealy mattress this week for a refund. It is a worthless item of poor quality.

Enclosed is an add (from www.craigslist.org) to sell the same mattress by another disappointed purchaser. Notice that this person purchased the same model, a “Fenway”, from Costco. Notice that the person states their doctor advised he stop using it.
  Apparently I'm not the only person to red flag the Costco "Fenway."

You may think my dissatisfaction with this mattress is unusual, until you realize that here is evidence of another person making the same complaint—lack of support—that I did.

Sealy, in my opinion, is committing fraud with this “PosturePedic” trademark name. There is nothing “PosturePedic” about a sagging, non-supportive mattress of such obviously cheap quality.

Costco has been, in my opinion, fooled into thinking that:
1) Sealy is providing a valuable item to Costco members
2) Anything that says “PosturePedic” must offer good back support

In fact, Sealy is not providing Costco members with any technical specifications regarding their product. Sealy is hiding behind descriptive terms like “Pillow top” and “Ultra Plush”; or “Fenway”, “Sanford”, “Allendale”, and “Guilmont” just as they are, in my opinion, sliding on the magic of the term “PosturePedic”.

Phony mattress names such as “Fenway”, “Sanford”, “Allendale”, and “Guilmont” are an old trick used in the bedding industry. You can read about the reason in the Consumer Reports article on beds (2004). These totally made up names prevent comparison shopping. Thus they only mean “name blocked so you don’t know what you are getting.”

Costco sells many items that display technical specifications; computers, LCD displays, wide screen TVs, and other household appliances that cost as much as a mattress & box spring. Yet the Sealy bed has only phony salesman jargon about “Ultra Plush Euro Pillowtop”, “Stay True™ SuperSoft convoluted foam” , “Marvelux™ foam”, etc., etc.
Can you imagine if Costco sold a computer that used the equivalent “salesman’s specifications”? It is absurd to imagine the hyperbole of an “Allendale PC” with “Super Easy™” operating system software, “SuperHuge™ hard drive” with “UltraFast™ memory” chips. Say what?

We buy merchandise because the manufacturer lists accurate technical specifications that allow us to compare one item against another. Not so in the bedding department.

Are we morons?
Are we to be sheltered from accurate information because we might not buy the item if Sealy accurately rated/described their mattress?

For God’s sake! You are Costco! All you have to do is have your buyers read the Consumer Reports article on mattresses and anyone with a college education can see there is huge problem in buying beds!

The furniture industry hides all technical specs and employs salesmen in showrooms to “push” their product. Consumer Reports completely missed the mark! They fell into the confusion of “some people liked this bed and some people hated it.” Notice that they gave up with the confusion of personal preferences—they failed to use any objective, scientifically quantifiable methodology to evaluate a bed!

Obtain the data
Where is the equivalent of the “crash test dummy” in this area?

1) construct a series of dummies with articulating spines
2) include models that span human heights from 5’ to 6’ 4”
3) allow body mass to be added to simulate any weight from 100 to 400lbs.
4) lay these dummies on various mattresses and photograph the effect from the side of the bed

Display the data as the bed’s “technical specs”
Show photos/graphs, etc. of the effects on different mattresses.

EXAMPLE

A Costco “Fenway” mattress with a 5’, 100 pound “female” dummy lying on its side:
*How many vertical inches of sink into the mattress?
*How much side-to-side sink (hammock effect) is evidenced?
*How accurately is the spinal column supported (deviation from normal alignment of a standing individual)?
*How much end-to-end curving is observed (hammock effect)?
*How many pounds of pressure recorded from sensors on the shoulder, hips, etc.?
*How much effort was required to roll over (pounds of force)

Same mattress with a 6’, 300 pound “male” dummy laying on its side:
*How many vertical inches of sink into the mattress?
*How much side-to-side sink (hammock effect) is evidenced?
*How accurately is the spinal column supported (deviation from normal alignment of a standing individual)?
*How much end-to-end curving is observed (hammock effect)?
*How many pounds of pressure recorded from sensors on the shoulder, hips, etc.?
*How much effort was required to roll over (pounds of force)

Conclusion for the Fenway
Ratings that indicate the estimated suitability of this mattress for individuals of the various heights, weights and ages. Note that age is related to sensitivity of pressure—older individuals require more softness than younger ones do. Obviously a mattress that supports a 100 pound person 5 feet tall may not be recommended for a 5’ 7” male who weighs 350 pounds.

END OF EXAMPLE

This leads to ratings that mean something
With accurate test results such as hypothesized above even Consumer Reports could have produced a useful article instead of the generalized confusion that they published.

Softness can be appended
Since support of the spine is one thing and softness another it should be made clear that a mattress with proper support but lacking in softness can be made softer by the simple addition of foam pads placed on top and covered with a mattress pad or fitted sheets.


What can Costco do?
Insist that Sealy drop all phony salesman jargon and provide objective data. Rate the mattresses for the weight limits with a quantifiable methodology to determine “support” and “softness.” Otherwise Sealy should be sent packing.

I was shocked at how cheap the Fenway mattress was. It is not surprising therefore that others, like the craigslist.org ad shows, would want to get rid of this bed. Perhaps others do not return the bed to Costco because, like the craigslist person, they don’t know that there is a 2-year return policy with Costco.

I will bet that if Costco sent a letter to all purchasers of the Fenway offering a refund that hundreds of these cheap sets would come back to Costco.

Thank you for being an excellent company that has revolutionized shopping in too many positive ways to discuss here. I would not take the time to author all these letters unless I felt that there was a serious problem that Costco has the power to correct.

In brief
Beds need to have weight/size limit specifications regarding an objective standard of spinal support. A bed that hammocks, as the Fenway does, is NOT “PosturePedic”. Softness is less significant as it can always be appended with a foam pad, etc.

Sincerely,


Fenway Allendale Robinson

Cc: Scott (Manager) , “Robert” at Sealy
 
What did Sealy have to say?
My reply to "Robert" at Sealy
January 12, 2006

“Robert”
Consumer Services Coordinator
Sealy Company Headquarters
One Office Parkway at Sealy Drive
Trinity, NC 27370

Dear “Robert”,

Your reply to my detailed letter is an insult to any person with a brain. You said nothing of any import. Your letter is best categorized as what it is commonly referred to—bullshit.

Thank you for sending me bullshit in reply to my serious and intelligent comments. The lack of awareness your company has displayed is typical of the dinosaur species of corporations.

You may go back to sleep now. “Robert.”


Sincerely,


Fenway Allendale Robinson

cc: Costco


PREVIOUS LETTER FROM: Fenway Allendale Robinson

No support
The mattress is not what I expected from a Sealy PosturePedic. It lacks support. It feels like a spring hammock. It cannot support my weight and curves inward so that I cannot roll from side to side as I have to roll uphill. I end up sleeping in one spot as if in a hammock.

A weight limit warning?
I believe that if this mattress is not some odd mistake then it should bear a weight rating limit for a 200 pound person—or whatever the weight limit actually is. It cannot be designed for an obese person such as me.

Yet I have never had such problems on Sealy PosturePedic mattresses tested in showrooms, slept on for a month in my cousin’s home or on ones in motels. They all gave sufficient support such that I could roll from one side to the other.

Not plush enough
This mattress also does not seem soft enough—the depth of the pillow top feels equal to a 3-layer models I recently tried in a showroom ($700 range).

The Costco Fenway model is supposed to have 6 layers of foam; but I feel springs and not foam. As I mentioned to you I felt wanted to cut into it to see if all the layers described in the kiosk brochure are really present.

To make the bed useable, for the time being, I put on two layers of Costco sheets, a 2” layer of memory foam, a Costco quilted mattress pad, then a Costco cotton comforter and a 300 thread/inch Costco flat sheet on top of that. Now I am sleeping in the equivalent of a well padded spring hammock. This is not what I expected from Sealy in this price range.

You know how a car suspension works? They have both springs and shocks. When the shocks are worn out the car bounces without damping. That describes this mattress—springs without damping.

I can’t escape the conclusion that something went wrong at Sealy. Given the amazing prices Costco offers me as a member I expected this to be the equivalent of a $900 to $1,000 bed. Instead it reminds me more of one I tried recently in a showroom. That model was in the $400 range.


Sincerely,

Fenway Allendale Robinson